The present invention relates to utility carts. The present utility cart relates more specifically to utility carts used in the transportation and storage of retail display shelving.
Utility carts are used in a variety of retail applications and typically include an upper and lower shelf positioned horizontally, 4 elongated legs or posts and a plurality of wheels or casters attached to the underside of the shelf or base. The shelves are typically attached to the legs by rivets, screws or welds.
These types of conventional carts are well know in the art and it can be said that wheeled carts have been in commercial and retail service for hundreds of years. The necessity for the transportation of articles that an individual could not physically or safely perform on ones own is well founded. Normally being comprised of 4 wheels, a frame and a plurality of fixed or removable shelves and often a handle, this standard cart design is vigorously employed in all areas of manufacturing and a staple in the retail service sectors of a modern economy. The basic design of the utility cart has changed little since it's inception because of it's ability to be easily produced and it's overall functionality and simplicity. Not only does the utility cart aid in the production and distribution of manufactured articles in a commercial setting, it provides the individual charged with the relocation of articles a safe method of conveyance for achieving this task. A typical cart of this type is shown in The United States of America Patent to Kern et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,441.
For most items transported within retail and commercial environments, the conventional shelf carts are the design of choice primarily because manufactured articles typically present in a predominately planar form or are packaged in a manner to acquire this efficient and serviceable design allowing for the relatively safe and secure placement of individual or multiple articles on a single cart shelf. This cubic structure associated with a majority of packaged articles allows most currently available conventional utility carts to demonstrate their proficiency in this area. Yet there are instances where articles for transport do not present generally in this form and thus render the standard utility cart appreciably inappropriate for use and therefore create a need for article specific utility carts to provide safe and efficient conveyance of these often irregularly shaped or cumbersome items as in the United States of America Patent to Elliot. U.S. Pat. No. 5,871,219.
Most recently 2 U.S. Applications for patent, 20150076779 Lindblom et al and 20150034579 Shawn Michael Kahler et al, have addressed this issue of retail shelf storage and transportation. Although each of these patent application deals with the need for idle shelving storage or the repositioning of shelving, they exhibit a common approach. Most notably the positioning of stored shelves horizontally in each device. This does somewhat remedy the problem of safe shelf storage and transport, but shelves placed in each of these devices would still come in contact with other shelves increasing the possibility of aesthetic damage. These designs also place the stored shelves at varying height positions in relation to the user of the device and thus require the user to, at times, lift shelves from various elevations potentially increasing the risk of operator fatigue or strain. A device wherein all shelves, either inserted or withdrawn, are located in a physically favorable, uniform height relative to the operator would be highly beneficial over the course of normal and extended use.
There are also instances wherein products for storage or transport are positioned vertically in carts or similar apparatuses for reasons of efficiency and product protection as well as occasionally providing the cart operator a potentially easier and safer manner in which to load or unload articles from the cart. Furthermore, the use of article dividers that are often constructed of a pliable yet firm material, whether it be for the placement of articles in a horizontal or vertical alignment, as a damage prevention feature for the articles whilst on utility carts, has been employed in the area of product transportation for many years. Typical carts or constructs demonstrating this concept of vertical or horizontal article isolation placement for transport or storage are shown in United States of America Patents to Gessert U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,577, Ferrucci U.S. Pat. No. 6,116,436, and Maurer et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,924. Though such carts have successfully dealt with storage and transportation issues of specific articles, there exists an area for improved safety and efficiency in the field of retail display shelf storage and transport.
All of the examples of prior art thus far have provided solutions for articles characteristically presenting in planate form. Each of the carts referenced are constructed with the use of parallel channels, ruts or guides to accept and contain goods which are manufactured with consistent dimensional attributes. Items for storage in these types of carts that do not present in planate form are often mounted to panel subassemblies (Maurer et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,924) to then be placed into the carts parallel channels. Each of these carts maintains a nonvarying channel width and therefore can only effectively accept goods or mounting subassemblies that are uniform in, what would be normally be considered, the thickness of the item or subassembly. Gessert's cart, (U.S. Pat. No. 5,924,577) is approached in much the same manner as Maurer's (U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,924). Each cart's channels are dependent upon straight parallel goods or backing plates to allow insertion into the cart. For this reason, carts of this type construction would be unusable with one piece wire welded display shelving. Today a substantial amount of retail shelving is constructed as a one piece welded unit with end bracket profiles that can be referred to as multi-sided irregular polygons. Therefore a cart with channels or containment areas designed to effectively accommodate these non-parallel items would be advantageous and as a result would be employed exclusively for the transporting or storing of these irregularly shaped shelves.